Actually, there seems to be many Mr. Rogers out there, the most famous, of course being this man:While I often get asked if iI own a chocolate company, or sell cellphones, it is that magnificient man that I get asked about most, and not just by staff. The other day I was in a classroom and wanted to show the students an example of my warhol self portrait. Not knowing my site’s off by heart I brought up google and typed in “mr. rogers blog wordpress teacher”. My site was nowhere to be found, but this wonderful site did pop up. We spent part of the morning looking at some of his art projects and the wonderful work in progress video. Lots of great ideas that I’m eager to try with future classes

I recently came across some old photos at James Bay Elementary, and thought that I would add them to History Pin, with the hopes of incorporating them into a lesson in the future. It was tricky positioning each photo in street view, but they are all more or less where they should be. There were many more great photos, but I chose to use only those without any identifiable faces in them. Hopefully I can add some more as I come across them, and with James Bay Community School celebrating its 40th birthday this year, it would be interesting to incorporate a comprehensive history of the building and activities throughout the years.

Hello everyone! I am a second year teacher working in the Victoria and Saanich school districts. I spent my first year TOCing in both these districts, and am excited to say that I am starting off this school year with a temporary contract at James Bay Elementary. I hold a previous degree in Psychology, and graduated from VIU’s post degree program in 2011. I got married at the beginning of the summer, and my wife and I are living in North Saanich.

I’ve always been interested in computers and technology, and have been able to keep my head above the water when each new technological advancement arrives on the scene. It has only been in the past year that I’ve found myself becoming out of touch with this field, and I’m grateful that this course will force me to acquaint myself with all that is new and wonderful in the tech world.

I have taken two previous online learning university courses. For the most part I found the workload and content delivery to work for me. Both courses were self-paced, and it was a challenge at times to keep myself on schedule and motivated. Neither of these courses delivered their content in “chunks”, so it was a little overwhelming being presented with a wall of information and assignments right off the bat. I am very excited with how this course is being delivered so far. I find it very helpful interacting and learning with the very tools that we will be using in our own classrooms.

I am excited about the opportunities that open learning provides to build on student’s existing knowledge of computers. I often find that when I am experiencing technical difficulties in the classroom, there will be at least 5 students who can navigate the problem better than I could. Our students are growing up in a world full of innovation, and it is our job to prepare them to navigate these innovations, without fully understanding ourselves what groundbreaking advancements may be upon us next. I think the only way we can do that is to foster an environment where problem solving, creative thinking, and teamwork are encouraged and rewarded, as it is these abilities that will allow our students to embrace each new advancement.

In my own practice I can see myself using many web2.0 technologies to stay connected with my students, and connect them to the many amazing resources that are out there. While I see great benefits to be had by introducing students to distributive learning resources, I think there needs to be a balance between this and more traditional face to face time. The social component of the classroom is something that is very hard to replicate, and something that is important in a child’s development. I think it’s a pretty exciting time to be a teacher right now, and have no idea what this profession will look like at the end of my career!

Thank you for checking out my site! I hope to use this blog as a place to post classroom projects and document my learning as I progress through Vancouver Island University’s Distributed Learning Program.